


A Soul for Him

by wisia



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Elements, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 00:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13915575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisia/pseuds/wisia
Summary: They say an immortal soul is key, and Steve will do anything to get one for Bucky. Except, Tony isn't what Steve thought he'll be.





	A Soul for Him

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shetlandowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shetlandowl/gifts).



> Yeah. I didn’t finish my other Stony Little Mermaid fic, but here I am posting another one. Excuse the mistakes. I’ll correct it on AO3 when I have time.
> 
> Big thanks to the SoCal Stony group on discord for the fun times and idea, especially shetlandowl
> 
> [Fulfills Stony Fairytale Bingo Square: Little Mermaid]

There was a prince on land, the fishes said. A prince who fell in love easily and freely. He would marry anyone who asked—if you asked.

And it was this that prompted Steve to seek out the sea witch.

“I need legs,” he declared, loud and bold. The cave was dark, and the waters chilly, but nothing was as pressing as the need for an immortal soul. He did not shy away as the sea witch glided forward, her red hair the only thing that stood out of her visage.

“And what would you give in return?” The sea witch asked. Nothing was without a price.

“Everything,” Steve said. A dangerous word that gave all without limitations. Bucky gave everything for him, and thus it was only fitting.

The sea witch laughed. “Do you really mean to offer everything?”

But the gaze in Steve’s eyes was resolved. “Yes.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” the sea witch said. “You are the infamous Captain after all.”

She floated closer to him then. Took in his look, his flesh, and the empty spot where his shield once hung. That was given up on the journey here.

“I will take your voice.” She stroked his cheek, fingers strangely warm. “And this—the prince prefers a less intimidating form.”

Steve gasped, the only noise he could make. The serum that ran in his blood was in her hands, and she smiled wide at him.

“Do not worry. It is in safe hands.” She bottled it up, sent it away, and called another bottle with a spark of red. She offered that to him, a silvery solution stopped up with a heavy granite top. “Drink this when you reach the surface. You have three months to gain his soul.”

Steve nodded, holding onto the bottle as tightly and carefully as he could.

“However, it may be something you regret.”

Never, Steve thought. He flipped his fin, hurrying to surface.

 

* * *

 

Pain laced his legs, and he never knew how men could stand or dance or did any of the things they did on land. His eyes watered with every step, and Steve knew it was made worse by his reversion. If the serum still ran true, he would be halfway up the sand instead of grasping at scattered shells and stones. Even the waves outpaced him up to land, to where he knew the road would lead to that immortal soul.

“Whoa!”

There was a clamor, and Steve could scarcely blink. The sun blinded him as he struggled to make sense in the change of his orientation. He swung a fist up to that voice.

“Hey! I’m only trying to help!” The person pulled his arm back, gentle. “You looked like you were dying.”

Steve huffed as he adjusted and could finally look at his rescuer. The man too looked at him, eyes settling on him.

“Oh,” the man breathed. His brown eyes were round with awe. An admiration underserving in Steve’s current form. “You are something, aren’t you?”

As are you, Steve replied and was struck numb.

“You can’t speak, can you?” The man realized sooner than Steve did. Steve shook his head.

The man sighed. “Well, I’m Tony. You may as well come with me. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tony kept his word, and Steve didn’t know whether to curse his luck or praise it. Tony was the man the fishes whispered about—a man who fell hard and fast for another. Except that sort of frivolity had all but disappeared a year prior to Steve’s arrival.

Steve noted no women or men could press Tony to stay. No amount of pretty dresses or salacious beckoning could sway him. As the prince’s charity, he had eyes to enough balls and gatherings to see Tony never took a partner to bed.

Instead, he found Tony with grease—some sort of land oil—smeared on his cheeks, hair mussed and wild from a sleepless night tinkering with his human toys and trinkets. Tony who toiled when Lady Virginia called and tried to better the lives of his people.

Tony wrote with him for communication, and Steve did the only thing he could do besides words scrawled across paper. He drew with charcoal, different from the squid ink, and tried to make Tony see. He captured the man, the motions in life never matching Steve’s drawn curve.

“You’re quite the artist,” Tony murmured. His breath was warm against Steve’s cheek, and he radiated heat the way he leaned his head over Steve’s shoulder to take a peek. Steve shrugged and nearly smack Tony’s jaw in the process.

“I wish you could speak sometimes,” Tony confessed. “Your eyes don’t say nearly enough.”

And yours say everything, Steve replied. His heart hammered in his chest, and he did not understand. He caught Tony’s gaze, and it made something in him swell without reason or rhyme.

Steve thought he understood. When he caught Tony in the terrors of sleep and lulled him back to a peaceful rest. There was a glow in Tony’s chest, a fire blue and true.

“I wish,” Tony said and didn’t finish. He held Steve’s hand the rest of the night.

It would not last.

 

* * *

 

 

“Did you think that I wouldn’t know?” Tony asked, voice sharp. Cutting like Steve had never heard before. “Did you think you could charm me?”

His gaze ran down Steve’s form, and it wasn’t kind. It was a raking, hard and cruel. Different compared to the first when Tony first saw him on land. That one was admiration, awe, everything this look wasn’t.

Steve held up his hands, but he was mute. Still, he opened his mouth. Desperate to explain. That it wasn’t true.

Tony shook his head. “I expected better of you. I don’t know what I thought.”

 _I wasn’t,_ Steve said soundlessly. Except, if he stopped to think about it, he was. He came onto land for Bucky. Bucky had sacrificed everything for him, and if Steve could get him a soul to replace the one Hydra stole…

He never thought he would love Tony. That in trying to ensnare Tony, he was the one caught.

Tony laughed, low and bitter. “Even so, I would give it to you. It’s a shame you picked the wrong man. Or, maybe the right man depending how you think it.”

Steve watched, transfixed, as Tony unbuttoned his shirt. A soft blue light shone out.

_What are you doing?_

“God knows I never placed much stock in this,” and there was a pop. The gem nestled deep within Tony’s chest was out, and Tony held it out to Steve.

“You love him, and I love you. Don’t forget that.”


End file.
